Reynard's House - Evening - Light Snow
Mercer von Riegan
Mercer knew he needed to get a warmer coat. They were only in Guardian Moon, and he knew the cold would last well into Great Tree Moon, but he couldn't bring himself to buy one. He was weathering the cold as best as he could. He didn't need to, but... well, a certain person could do just fine in the cold, he supposed, and he wanted to be able to do that with her, too. He pulled the coat closer to his body, shivering just slightly as the sounds of crunching snow filled his ears. Today they had all agreed to meet at Reynard's house, this time for an update. The first time they were all together at Rey's was two days ago for Vi's birthday. It was mostly so that Thea, Sor, and Sen could all find their way to Rey's without needing any guidance from him, Cy, or Vi.
It wasn't as if he wouldn't walk with one or two of them, but it was safer to depart separately. Otherwise there would be eyes on them, and who knows what might happen? Always better to be safe, and cautious rather than get caught by the wrong people. When he made it to Reynard's, he opened the door with the spare key he had, and tossed it back into his pocket, closing the door behind him with a soft thud. He grinned a little to himself as he cleared his throat.
“Darlings I'm home!" he stated out loud. He was quite certain that Reynard and Vridel would be here, already, however; the voice that echoed back surprised him a little.
“You think too highly of yourself, Mercer," Senka spoke. He rouned the corner and spotted her sitting in one of the chairs by the table. He could smell a plate of pastries coming from somewhere, and his eyes searched for the source. He spotted them, and immediately, he began to salivate. He glanced towards Senka and, surprisingly, she nodded. “Help yourself. The others can get their share when they arrive."
“You're too good to me, Sen." He picked up one of the jelly doughnuts, and made his way towards an empty chair.
Vridel snorted, sharing a chair with Thea at the table. They appeared to be sharing a doughnut at the moment; or at least there was only one plate in front of them. “She is; you really don't deserve it."
Sorcha and Teach arrived last, having apparently met up on the way. There were snowflakes in her hair still when she took a spot next to him, reaching for one of the pastries and a napkin; they glimmered a little in the light. Though she'd no doubt shed a cloak of some kind in the entryway, and her cheeks were pink from the chill, she did not indeed appear uncomfortable at all.
Teach dropped into the chair nearest Sen, leaning over to place a chaste kiss in her hair, present company being about the only place they could really get away with even such small things as those. “Sorry we're a little late," he said. “I got caught up talking to Alois. Sorcha had to get me out of being roped into drinks."
Mercer's heart warmed at the gesture, still. Senka smiled a little more each time he saw her, and he supposed that might have been because of Teach. He'd been smiling a little more, too, after the incident with his father, but Mercer knew that Teach would still need more time to heal from something like that. Instead, he reached over to smooth the snowflakes out of Sorcha's hair, and grinned at her.
“That's because my fiancée's the best at rescuing people," he spoke, knowing full well it would embarrass her. Not that he really minded; he enjoyed the pink flush on her face as much as he enjoyed her company. Senka huffed a light laugh as she shook her head. Thea rolled her eyes but was still grinning as she took another bite from the jelly doughnut. Mercer was actually surprised that she hadn't just stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. She was prone to doing things like that.
Sorcha did indeed turn pink, though whether it was more from what he said or the touch of his hand in her hair was hard to say. “I just said I had a question about the homework..." she mumbled, taking a bite of her doughnut.
Vi grinned, breaking off a piece of Thea's and chewing it over before he spoke. “So anyway," he said, “we've invited you here to... pool our resources, I suppose. The three of us," he pointed to himself, Mercer, and Reynard, “have been pretty convinced from early this year that something's going on behind the scenes with the Church. The Professor's been helping us try to figure out what for a while too, but... we're hitting more dead ends than not, and we thought you three might be able to help."
She really was adorable, but Vi's statement took precedent. He nodded in agreement. “Yep," Mercer stated as he took a bite from his doughnut. Senka tilted her head in an inquisitive manner, and Thea merely pursed her lips together. “As you all are aware, other than the fact of Sen's recent rise to fame," he began, referring to, of course, the information of her being a Duscur native, “the archbishop seems to have it out for us all. From the beginning, she's given us the more dangerous missions, almost as if she were trying to get us killed." He let that bit of information sink in before he continued.
“Not only that, it seems that she doesn't like our particular friendship with Teach. She's very... protective of him. And as you all know, he has a literal goddess in his head. We think Rhea's interest in Teach is because she knows that he is the vessel for Sothis, but we don't have anything solid to prove it." He turned his attention to Vridel, nodding his head to let him include more information if he wanted to.
“On top of this," Vi added, “there are certain strange discrepancies in Church recountings of history, and large gaps in information about certain things. Why does it seem to be that a subset of the people here don't age? Who are Solon and these other people, really? What do they have to do with Rhea, and what information gives her basis for saying, as she has, that their actions are only a part of something larger?" He shook his head, then turned to Reynard.
The other man seemed prepared for this, and provided a rather efficient outline of what they'd gathered so far: their suspicions about Rhea, the strange connections between Crests and the Immaculate One, ancient technology and Solon, and even an abbreviated version of what Vi had said, once, about Those Who Slither in the Dark.
“We have a lot of pieces," he concluded wryly, “but no idea how they fit together, or how many we're missing."
By the end, Sorcha's eyes were wide, a sort of thoughtful surprise evident over her features. “How can I help?" she asked simply.
“You can help us with deciphering a lot of the old texts and what's written in between. Teach said you're pretty good at things like that, and Vi and I can only do so much," Mercer stated, glancing towards Sorcha as he smiled thinly at her. He really didn't want to involve any more of his friends in these things, however; they had been right when they talked about it, previously. They needed the expertise, more, than anything else. And with more heads put together, the more likely it was that they'd be able to see patterns, or something.
Thea hummed lightly as if to herself before she glanced up at the others. “I want to help, too, but I don't know how much help I can be. I've... I've never really explored much outside of the church, but I might be able to help with some of those missing things. And... as for the Immaculate One, I saw an image of it, before. It's... it almost looks like a large dragon, right?" Thea spoke. Mercer nodded softly, as Thea shook her head.
“I don't know what happened to the book it was in, but I haven't seen it in nearly two years. The one thing I remember it saying was that the Immaculate One was a form, of something, or someone. I can't remember, exactly, but I do remember that."
Mercer pursed his lips together at that. It was a form? That might have explained something, but he was going to wait until he had more information. Senka had remained mostly quiet through the whole ordeal.
“A form of something?" Sorcha's brows knit. “And you said it had the Crest of Seiros on its head, right? Maybe that's related?"
“It might be," Vi said. “It looked almost like a Crest stone, actually. Which might explain where the Crest stone of Seiros is. It's not in a Relic, I don't think, as we don't have one." The Imperial family, of course, most famously bore the Crest of Seiros, the only line documented to have ever done so. “But you know, it's curious. The stories say Seiros shared her power with the first Emperor. I wonder if this is somehow different from the others—the Saints and the Elites, and if that explains why their bloodlines have Relics and mine does not."
Teach, meanwhile, stroked a hand through Sen's hair, murmuring only just at volume enough for anyone else to hear. “Something on your mind?"
Senka was either too far in thought that she didn't hear Teach, or she was still thinking about something. She blinked, then, before shaking her head. “Well," she began, lifting her eyes to meet those at the table, “when we were in the tombs, when you received the Sword of the Creator, wasn't that in Seiros' Tomb?" Mercer arched a brow at that.
“Yeah, but it's obvious that Teach isn't a line of Seiros, but rather the goddess. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to wield the sword," Mercer stated. Senka nodded her head slowly, and furrowed her brows.
“That means that Seiros's tomb is empty because there is no body to be found for it. You would think that for a being so highly revered, they would have done everything in their power to protect her rest site. For it to have been so easily infiltrated... it's almost as if Rhea knew that Seiros's body would not be found there. Not even her bones. So why would something that belongs to the goddess be in the tomb of someone she supposedly sent a divine revelation to? And if the sword was given to Seiros, how could she wield it without the Crest Stone?"
“It's like with Maurice. If... if Blutgang and overtaxing his Crest caused him to turn into a beast, isn't it possible that the Immaculate One might, in theory, also be Seiros?"
“That still doesn't explain why Seiros doesn't have a Relic," Mercer stated. “It might be possible that, unlike the Elites, Seiros didn't have a Relic to pass on. And now that you mention it... none of the Saints have Relics, either. What gives?"
“I'd want to assume that if a dragon were flying around somewhere someone would have said somethi—" Vi stopped abruptly, something almost visibly clicking together for him. “You don't think—that fable. The one I was told to help master my Crests. That associated each one with a dragon?"
“You think they might be associated with actual dragons?" Teach asked, blinking slowly.
“They already are, given the picture of the Immaculate One," Sorcha pointed out. “And... come to think of it, Maurice was pretty... reptilian, right? Like he had scales and everything? Maybe a Crest's power... really is a dragon's power?"
That was something to think about. A dragon's power is what a Crest consisted of. If that were the case, that must have meant that, before the Church of Seiros was founded, dragons really did exist. Mercer pursed his lips together, though.
“If that were true, then why is the Immaculate One the only one mentioned? If the others were dragons as well, that would mean that the Elites... they had to have been dragons too, right? If they were, why weren't they able to transform and help out Seiros? It's possible that they had someone share that power with them. If that's the case, then... everything we know about the Elites, is wrong, too." Mercer felt something in his stomach drop at that, but it was still something of a possibility.
“It seems weird, doesn't it? Think about Maurice. He supposedly drew too much power from his Crest, and transformed into a beast. But if the Crests belonged to dragons—shouldn't he have been capable of turning into one of those? I'm willing to bet a dragon is more powerful than a beast." Honestly most of them could give most beasts a run for their money at this point, so she wasn't wrong. Maurice had been stronger than average, but far from undefeatable, as Senka and Teach had demonstrated.
“And why would the Elites need weapons for their stones if the stones were part of their body like that? Maybe... maybe that was what separates them from the Saints? Including Saint Seiros? If the stone's in a Relic, if couldn't be used to transform? But if it wasn't...?" She seemed to have trouble completing the thought; there were certainly still loose threads there.
“That seems to imply that if Vridel could find a stone he'd be able to become a dragon. No offense, but that's kind of absurd," Rey said, frowning thoughtfully. “Still... it doesn't seem totally wrong to me, somehow."
“I don't think that's quite right. If Vridel found a stone, he'd likely turn into a beast like Maurice, not a dragon. I think... it has something more to do with the Stones being on a person's body. The Immaculate One had a Crest Stone on its forehead, correct?" Mercer nodded.
“What if the Crest Stone is likely to be inside of the body? Crests and Crest Stones all resonate with each other. The Crest of Blaiddyd resonates with Areadbhar, the Crest of Riegan, Failnaught. What if that is the connection? The blood and Stones? If, say Mercer, for example, tried to wield Areadbhar, I doubt he'd be able to do it properly because he has a Crest of Riegan, and not Blaiddyd. And it is likely that Areadbhar would reject him. The same if Vridel tried to wield Failnaught, or if Sorcha tried with the Sword of the Creator."
“So what you're saying is that a Crest Stone and Crest have to be of the same blood?" Senka nodded her head. Mercer could almost see that, actually.
“That seems right but... still not everything. Because the Professor can use the Sword of the Creator without any stone, so..." Sorcha frowned.
“We usually make a point of discounting him in trying to form theories," Vi noted wryly. “He's too weird."
Senka smiled softly. “That's alright, I like him weird."
Teach huffed a little, giving her the tiniest smile. “It might be that having Sothis herself in my head serves a similar function," he noted. “She thinks we're sort of on the right track, by the way, though she can't be sure. Her memories, like mine, are incomplete."
Mercer pursed his lips together as he regarded Teach. “I wonder if Sothis being in your head has anything to do with Rhea," he spoke, pursing his lips together. He glanced towards Vridel and Sorcha before turning back to Teach, and continued: “What if she did something to you when you were a child, and that's why you have Sothis in your head?" Thea frowned slightly at the news; it was news to her and Senka, at least.
“Are you saying that she experimented on Professor?" Thea asked, tilting her head slightly.
“Not necessarily experimented on, but... what exactly did she do to Teach. If Teach was on the verge of death, wouldn't her healing capablities, alone, have saved him and his mother?" Thea seemed to consider the information before nodding her head.
“Other than sister, Rhea is one of the strongest white magic users in the Church. She should have been able to save a life depending on how far they were gone. If... if Professor's mother was already on death's door, Rhea wouldn't have been able to save her, but from the sounds of it," Thea glanced towards Teach, “Professor was also at death's door."
“Apparently it was some kind of either-or choice," Teach explained. “And my mother chose to save me. My father also said he had me looked at by a doctor in secret, without Rhea knowing, and that I had no heartbeat. He writes later that one seemed to appear, but... not for a decade."
“White magic can do a lot," Vi said, expelling a break and shaking his head almost in disbelief. “But it can't keep someone alive without a heartbeat. Not for more than a minute, maybe. If that's true, something else definitely happened, and the only one left who knows what—"
“Is the Archbishop," Sorcha finished with a frown. “I don't think we're going to get far in that direction." She sighed, then looked to Teach almost guiltily. “Um, Professor, I'm sure there's an explanation, but... if you can wind back time, then...?"
“Something interfered," he said softly. “Someone, maybe. There was another man, who looked like Solon, and escaped with Monica. Teleported, somehow. After the first time, I used the Divine Pulse, but... it didn't go back as far as I'd intended. So I tried to get Monica before her hit landed, but he just... appeared. And then the Pulse wouldn't work at all. Sothis can't explain it, other than to say that some things are fated, and her power is not limitless."
“Well... shit, that's not good. If someone can mess with a goddess's power, then that might make him some kind of god," Mercer spoke. It was entirely possible that whoever that man was, he was extremely skilled in the arcane, or perhaps had knowledge that they did not possess. He turned his attention towards Cyril and pursed his lips.
“Who is Monica to them?" Senka mused out loud, glancing briefly towards Cyril before turning her attention back to the group. “Monica escaped with them, and if Cyril used his ability to wind back time to save... his father, then who is she that those people would save her? The only thing we know about her is who her family is, and that she was supposedly a missing student from the previous year."
“It's possible that she was never missing to begin with, and when they kidnapped Thea," Mercer winced a bit, knowing that it was a sore spot for her. He glanced her way, but she merely nodded her head. “Maybe they used that opportunity to place her back into the academy to keep an eye on things. To see what we knew and what Rhea was up to?"
“You know..." Reynard frowned, picking a bit at his pastry. “I attributed it to trauma at the time, but a few of the faculty were talking about her. Apparently, her personality since returning had been entirely different from what they expected. By all accounts she was a shy, quiet girl last year. Never drew attention to herself at all."
Vi snorted. “Definitely a change."
Teach appeared to consider this for a moment. “She said something, to my father. 'Even with her gift, this is all you can manage,' something to that effect. It's been bothering me, because it doesn't seem like nonsense, but I have no idea what she was referring to."
“Her gift..." Sorcha repeated, humming thoughtfully. “Besides your mother and the Archbishop, do you know if your father had any close female acquaintances?"
He shook his head. “Not really. Mercenary life tended to be very... male-dominated." He paused. “As to why save Monica, that other man did say she had a purpose still to fulfill. I don't know what, but he didn't seem to care much for her beyond that simple fact. Something tells me he wouldn't have revealed himself if it weren't necessary for some larger plan, though there was no hint as to what it might be."
“I hate to say the Archbishop is right about anything," Reynard remarked, “but in this case I think her suspicion that there's a larger whole here is spot on. Too bad she cloaks it in speculation and won't just tell us what that whole is."
Mercer contemplated the information he had available. Crest Stones, dragons, conspiracies, it all seemed too fantastical to him. It left more questions than answers, but he supposed that was just how things were going to go from here on out. They needed more information, more clues, and if anything, more heads. He pushed a light sigh through his nose and glanced at the others.
“It's only going to get more difficult from here on out, but now that we have at least a total of seven people to put our heads together, hopefully we can figure something out before graduation," he murmured, running a hand through his hair. Three months wasn't a lot of time, and he knew that once they all scattered to the wind, keeping in touch would be difficult. Not only that, access to the church and everything going on inside, would be difficult as well. If Thea remained at the church, it would be possible that she could feed them information, however; the way she was currently looking at Vridel... Mercer knew that she would follow him wherever he went.
And he couldn't ask Vridel to ask her to stay behind. He couldn't ask that of her, either.
Sorcha pursed her lips. “If you've got anything for me to take a look at, I'll get cracking as soon as I can. I can't promise I'll succeed, but the sooner the better."
Vi nodded. “I'll get them to you. Everyone else... just keep your eyes and ears open. We can't pretend there's not danger here. Like the professor says, priority one is keeping ourselves and each other alive. The rest comes after."
There were several nods, and the meeting broke there. There might not be much time left, but—
at least they had more help now.
It wasn't as if he wouldn't walk with one or two of them, but it was safer to depart separately. Otherwise there would be eyes on them, and who knows what might happen? Always better to be safe, and cautious rather than get caught by the wrong people. When he made it to Reynard's, he opened the door with the spare key he had, and tossed it back into his pocket, closing the door behind him with a soft thud. He grinned a little to himself as he cleared his throat.
“Darlings I'm home!" he stated out loud. He was quite certain that Reynard and Vridel would be here, already, however; the voice that echoed back surprised him a little.
“You think too highly of yourself, Mercer," Senka spoke. He rouned the corner and spotted her sitting in one of the chairs by the table. He could smell a plate of pastries coming from somewhere, and his eyes searched for the source. He spotted them, and immediately, he began to salivate. He glanced towards Senka and, surprisingly, she nodded. “Help yourself. The others can get their share when they arrive."
“You're too good to me, Sen." He picked up one of the jelly doughnuts, and made his way towards an empty chair.
Vridel snorted, sharing a chair with Thea at the table. They appeared to be sharing a doughnut at the moment; or at least there was only one plate in front of them. “She is; you really don't deserve it."
Sorcha and Teach arrived last, having apparently met up on the way. There were snowflakes in her hair still when she took a spot next to him, reaching for one of the pastries and a napkin; they glimmered a little in the light. Though she'd no doubt shed a cloak of some kind in the entryway, and her cheeks were pink from the chill, she did not indeed appear uncomfortable at all.
Teach dropped into the chair nearest Sen, leaning over to place a chaste kiss in her hair, present company being about the only place they could really get away with even such small things as those. “Sorry we're a little late," he said. “I got caught up talking to Alois. Sorcha had to get me out of being roped into drinks."
Mercer's heart warmed at the gesture, still. Senka smiled a little more each time he saw her, and he supposed that might have been because of Teach. He'd been smiling a little more, too, after the incident with his father, but Mercer knew that Teach would still need more time to heal from something like that. Instead, he reached over to smooth the snowflakes out of Sorcha's hair, and grinned at her.
“That's because my fiancée's the best at rescuing people," he spoke, knowing full well it would embarrass her. Not that he really minded; he enjoyed the pink flush on her face as much as he enjoyed her company. Senka huffed a light laugh as she shook her head. Thea rolled her eyes but was still grinning as she took another bite from the jelly doughnut. Mercer was actually surprised that she hadn't just stuffed the whole thing in her mouth. She was prone to doing things like that.
Sorcha did indeed turn pink, though whether it was more from what he said or the touch of his hand in her hair was hard to say. “I just said I had a question about the homework..." she mumbled, taking a bite of her doughnut.
Vi grinned, breaking off a piece of Thea's and chewing it over before he spoke. “So anyway," he said, “we've invited you here to... pool our resources, I suppose. The three of us," he pointed to himself, Mercer, and Reynard, “have been pretty convinced from early this year that something's going on behind the scenes with the Church. The Professor's been helping us try to figure out what for a while too, but... we're hitting more dead ends than not, and we thought you three might be able to help."
She really was adorable, but Vi's statement took precedent. He nodded in agreement. “Yep," Mercer stated as he took a bite from his doughnut. Senka tilted her head in an inquisitive manner, and Thea merely pursed her lips together. “As you all are aware, other than the fact of Sen's recent rise to fame," he began, referring to, of course, the information of her being a Duscur native, “the archbishop seems to have it out for us all. From the beginning, she's given us the more dangerous missions, almost as if she were trying to get us killed." He let that bit of information sink in before he continued.
“Not only that, it seems that she doesn't like our particular friendship with Teach. She's very... protective of him. And as you all know, he has a literal goddess in his head. We think Rhea's interest in Teach is because she knows that he is the vessel for Sothis, but we don't have anything solid to prove it." He turned his attention to Vridel, nodding his head to let him include more information if he wanted to.
“On top of this," Vi added, “there are certain strange discrepancies in Church recountings of history, and large gaps in information about certain things. Why does it seem to be that a subset of the people here don't age? Who are Solon and these other people, really? What do they have to do with Rhea, and what information gives her basis for saying, as she has, that their actions are only a part of something larger?" He shook his head, then turned to Reynard.
The other man seemed prepared for this, and provided a rather efficient outline of what they'd gathered so far: their suspicions about Rhea, the strange connections between Crests and the Immaculate One, ancient technology and Solon, and even an abbreviated version of what Vi had said, once, about Those Who Slither in the Dark.
“We have a lot of pieces," he concluded wryly, “but no idea how they fit together, or how many we're missing."
By the end, Sorcha's eyes were wide, a sort of thoughtful surprise evident over her features. “How can I help?" she asked simply.
“You can help us with deciphering a lot of the old texts and what's written in between. Teach said you're pretty good at things like that, and Vi and I can only do so much," Mercer stated, glancing towards Sorcha as he smiled thinly at her. He really didn't want to involve any more of his friends in these things, however; they had been right when they talked about it, previously. They needed the expertise, more, than anything else. And with more heads put together, the more likely it was that they'd be able to see patterns, or something.
Thea hummed lightly as if to herself before she glanced up at the others. “I want to help, too, but I don't know how much help I can be. I've... I've never really explored much outside of the church, but I might be able to help with some of those missing things. And... as for the Immaculate One, I saw an image of it, before. It's... it almost looks like a large dragon, right?" Thea spoke. Mercer nodded softly, as Thea shook her head.
“I don't know what happened to the book it was in, but I haven't seen it in nearly two years. The one thing I remember it saying was that the Immaculate One was a form, of something, or someone. I can't remember, exactly, but I do remember that."
Mercer pursed his lips together at that. It was a form? That might have explained something, but he was going to wait until he had more information. Senka had remained mostly quiet through the whole ordeal.
“A form of something?" Sorcha's brows knit. “And you said it had the Crest of Seiros on its head, right? Maybe that's related?"
“It might be," Vi said. “It looked almost like a Crest stone, actually. Which might explain where the Crest stone of Seiros is. It's not in a Relic, I don't think, as we don't have one." The Imperial family, of course, most famously bore the Crest of Seiros, the only line documented to have ever done so. “But you know, it's curious. The stories say Seiros shared her power with the first Emperor. I wonder if this is somehow different from the others—the Saints and the Elites, and if that explains why their bloodlines have Relics and mine does not."
Teach, meanwhile, stroked a hand through Sen's hair, murmuring only just at volume enough for anyone else to hear. “Something on your mind?"
Senka was either too far in thought that she didn't hear Teach, or she was still thinking about something. She blinked, then, before shaking her head. “Well," she began, lifting her eyes to meet those at the table, “when we were in the tombs, when you received the Sword of the Creator, wasn't that in Seiros' Tomb?" Mercer arched a brow at that.
“Yeah, but it's obvious that Teach isn't a line of Seiros, but rather the goddess. Otherwise he wouldn't be able to wield the sword," Mercer stated. Senka nodded her head slowly, and furrowed her brows.
“That means that Seiros's tomb is empty because there is no body to be found for it. You would think that for a being so highly revered, they would have done everything in their power to protect her rest site. For it to have been so easily infiltrated... it's almost as if Rhea knew that Seiros's body would not be found there. Not even her bones. So why would something that belongs to the goddess be in the tomb of someone she supposedly sent a divine revelation to? And if the sword was given to Seiros, how could she wield it without the Crest Stone?"
“It's like with Maurice. If... if Blutgang and overtaxing his Crest caused him to turn into a beast, isn't it possible that the Immaculate One might, in theory, also be Seiros?"
“That still doesn't explain why Seiros doesn't have a Relic," Mercer stated. “It might be possible that, unlike the Elites, Seiros didn't have a Relic to pass on. And now that you mention it... none of the Saints have Relics, either. What gives?"
“I'd want to assume that if a dragon were flying around somewhere someone would have said somethi—" Vi stopped abruptly, something almost visibly clicking together for him. “You don't think—that fable. The one I was told to help master my Crests. That associated each one with a dragon?"
“You think they might be associated with actual dragons?" Teach asked, blinking slowly.
“They already are, given the picture of the Immaculate One," Sorcha pointed out. “And... come to think of it, Maurice was pretty... reptilian, right? Like he had scales and everything? Maybe a Crest's power... really is a dragon's power?"
That was something to think about. A dragon's power is what a Crest consisted of. If that were the case, that must have meant that, before the Church of Seiros was founded, dragons really did exist. Mercer pursed his lips together, though.
“If that were true, then why is the Immaculate One the only one mentioned? If the others were dragons as well, that would mean that the Elites... they had to have been dragons too, right? If they were, why weren't they able to transform and help out Seiros? It's possible that they had someone share that power with them. If that's the case, then... everything we know about the Elites, is wrong, too." Mercer felt something in his stomach drop at that, but it was still something of a possibility.
“It seems weird, doesn't it? Think about Maurice. He supposedly drew too much power from his Crest, and transformed into a beast. But if the Crests belonged to dragons—shouldn't he have been capable of turning into one of those? I'm willing to bet a dragon is more powerful than a beast." Honestly most of them could give most beasts a run for their money at this point, so she wasn't wrong. Maurice had been stronger than average, but far from undefeatable, as Senka and Teach had demonstrated.
“And why would the Elites need weapons for their stones if the stones were part of their body like that? Maybe... maybe that was what separates them from the Saints? Including Saint Seiros? If the stone's in a Relic, if couldn't be used to transform? But if it wasn't...?" She seemed to have trouble completing the thought; there were certainly still loose threads there.
“That seems to imply that if Vridel could find a stone he'd be able to become a dragon. No offense, but that's kind of absurd," Rey said, frowning thoughtfully. “Still... it doesn't seem totally wrong to me, somehow."
“I don't think that's quite right. If Vridel found a stone, he'd likely turn into a beast like Maurice, not a dragon. I think... it has something more to do with the Stones being on a person's body. The Immaculate One had a Crest Stone on its forehead, correct?" Mercer nodded.
“What if the Crest Stone is likely to be inside of the body? Crests and Crest Stones all resonate with each other. The Crest of Blaiddyd resonates with Areadbhar, the Crest of Riegan, Failnaught. What if that is the connection? The blood and Stones? If, say Mercer, for example, tried to wield Areadbhar, I doubt he'd be able to do it properly because he has a Crest of Riegan, and not Blaiddyd. And it is likely that Areadbhar would reject him. The same if Vridel tried to wield Failnaught, or if Sorcha tried with the Sword of the Creator."
“So what you're saying is that a Crest Stone and Crest have to be of the same blood?" Senka nodded her head. Mercer could almost see that, actually.
“That seems right but... still not everything. Because the Professor can use the Sword of the Creator without any stone, so..." Sorcha frowned.
“We usually make a point of discounting him in trying to form theories," Vi noted wryly. “He's too weird."
Senka smiled softly. “That's alright, I like him weird."
Teach huffed a little, giving her the tiniest smile. “It might be that having Sothis herself in my head serves a similar function," he noted. “She thinks we're sort of on the right track, by the way, though she can't be sure. Her memories, like mine, are incomplete."
Mercer pursed his lips together as he regarded Teach. “I wonder if Sothis being in your head has anything to do with Rhea," he spoke, pursing his lips together. He glanced towards Vridel and Sorcha before turning back to Teach, and continued: “What if she did something to you when you were a child, and that's why you have Sothis in your head?" Thea frowned slightly at the news; it was news to her and Senka, at least.
“Are you saying that she experimented on Professor?" Thea asked, tilting her head slightly.
“Not necessarily experimented on, but... what exactly did she do to Teach. If Teach was on the verge of death, wouldn't her healing capablities, alone, have saved him and his mother?" Thea seemed to consider the information before nodding her head.
“Other than sister, Rhea is one of the strongest white magic users in the Church. She should have been able to save a life depending on how far they were gone. If... if Professor's mother was already on death's door, Rhea wouldn't have been able to save her, but from the sounds of it," Thea glanced towards Teach, “Professor was also at death's door."
“Apparently it was some kind of either-or choice," Teach explained. “And my mother chose to save me. My father also said he had me looked at by a doctor in secret, without Rhea knowing, and that I had no heartbeat. He writes later that one seemed to appear, but... not for a decade."
“White magic can do a lot," Vi said, expelling a break and shaking his head almost in disbelief. “But it can't keep someone alive without a heartbeat. Not for more than a minute, maybe. If that's true, something else definitely happened, and the only one left who knows what—"
“Is the Archbishop," Sorcha finished with a frown. “I don't think we're going to get far in that direction." She sighed, then looked to Teach almost guiltily. “Um, Professor, I'm sure there's an explanation, but... if you can wind back time, then...?"
“Something interfered," he said softly. “Someone, maybe. There was another man, who looked like Solon, and escaped with Monica. Teleported, somehow. After the first time, I used the Divine Pulse, but... it didn't go back as far as I'd intended. So I tried to get Monica before her hit landed, but he just... appeared. And then the Pulse wouldn't work at all. Sothis can't explain it, other than to say that some things are fated, and her power is not limitless."
“Well... shit, that's not good. If someone can mess with a goddess's power, then that might make him some kind of god," Mercer spoke. It was entirely possible that whoever that man was, he was extremely skilled in the arcane, or perhaps had knowledge that they did not possess. He turned his attention towards Cyril and pursed his lips.
“Who is Monica to them?" Senka mused out loud, glancing briefly towards Cyril before turning her attention back to the group. “Monica escaped with them, and if Cyril used his ability to wind back time to save... his father, then who is she that those people would save her? The only thing we know about her is who her family is, and that she was supposedly a missing student from the previous year."
“It's possible that she was never missing to begin with, and when they kidnapped Thea," Mercer winced a bit, knowing that it was a sore spot for her. He glanced her way, but she merely nodded her head. “Maybe they used that opportunity to place her back into the academy to keep an eye on things. To see what we knew and what Rhea was up to?"
“You know..." Reynard frowned, picking a bit at his pastry. “I attributed it to trauma at the time, but a few of the faculty were talking about her. Apparently, her personality since returning had been entirely different from what they expected. By all accounts she was a shy, quiet girl last year. Never drew attention to herself at all."
Vi snorted. “Definitely a change."
Teach appeared to consider this for a moment. “She said something, to my father. 'Even with her gift, this is all you can manage,' something to that effect. It's been bothering me, because it doesn't seem like nonsense, but I have no idea what she was referring to."
“Her gift..." Sorcha repeated, humming thoughtfully. “Besides your mother and the Archbishop, do you know if your father had any close female acquaintances?"
He shook his head. “Not really. Mercenary life tended to be very... male-dominated." He paused. “As to why save Monica, that other man did say she had a purpose still to fulfill. I don't know what, but he didn't seem to care much for her beyond that simple fact. Something tells me he wouldn't have revealed himself if it weren't necessary for some larger plan, though there was no hint as to what it might be."
“I hate to say the Archbishop is right about anything," Reynard remarked, “but in this case I think her suspicion that there's a larger whole here is spot on. Too bad she cloaks it in speculation and won't just tell us what that whole is."
Mercer contemplated the information he had available. Crest Stones, dragons, conspiracies, it all seemed too fantastical to him. It left more questions than answers, but he supposed that was just how things were going to go from here on out. They needed more information, more clues, and if anything, more heads. He pushed a light sigh through his nose and glanced at the others.
“It's only going to get more difficult from here on out, but now that we have at least a total of seven people to put our heads together, hopefully we can figure something out before graduation," he murmured, running a hand through his hair. Three months wasn't a lot of time, and he knew that once they all scattered to the wind, keeping in touch would be difficult. Not only that, access to the church and everything going on inside, would be difficult as well. If Thea remained at the church, it would be possible that she could feed them information, however; the way she was currently looking at Vridel... Mercer knew that she would follow him wherever he went.
And he couldn't ask Vridel to ask her to stay behind. He couldn't ask that of her, either.
Sorcha pursed her lips. “If you've got anything for me to take a look at, I'll get cracking as soon as I can. I can't promise I'll succeed, but the sooner the better."
Vi nodded. “I'll get them to you. Everyone else... just keep your eyes and ears open. We can't pretend there's not danger here. Like the professor says, priority one is keeping ourselves and each other alive. The rest comes after."
There were several nods, and the meeting broke there. There might not be much time left, but—
at least they had more help now.